Reassessing the Race Wage Gap in the United States

Despite the implementation of laws against discrimination, the existence of the racial wage gap between blacks and whites has persisted in the U.S. labor market. Some of the reasoning attributed to the racial wage gap include skills, education level, government policies, years of work experience and racial bias. A deeper look into the claims of education level, skills, government policies and years of work experience being the cause of the racial wage gap proves that these reasons alone only make up a small fraction of the racial wage gap. Thus, this study aims to investigate the factors contributing to racial wage gaps, the influence of the differences attributed to racial wage gaps on discrimination in the United States’ labor market and possible solutions to reduce racial wage gaps and discrimination in the U.S. labor market. This research is gathered from existing research with an extensive review of literature in which careful judgement is set forth based on the findings in these studies. The findings showed that education, incarceration, and skills do attribute to the racial wage gap, but racial bias is a much bigger reasoning behind the wage gap in the U.S. labor market. The findings in this paper adds to existing research on the racial wage gap and discrimination in the United States’ labor market.